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Mafia and drugs in Palma di Montechiaro: the Court of Appeal of Palermo sentences nine sentences in the “White Gold” investigation.
On 26 January 2022, before the Judge for the preliminary hearings of the Court of Palermo, the public prosecutor Pierangelo Padova, at the end of the summary judgment, invoked 13 convictions and 3 acquittals in the context of the so-called “White Gold” investigation on alleged crimes, affecting Palma di Montechiaro, linked to the mafia association and narcotic substances. Then on July 22, 2023, the sentence was issued.
Rosario Pace, 62 years old, 16 years in prison.
Then 12 years of imprisonment for the former municipal councilor of Palma di Montechiaro, Salvatore Montalto, 52 years old, who died in his sleep on 18 January 2023 in Cagliari prison.
Gioacchino Rosario Barragato, 61 years old, 12 years in prison.
Francesco Bonsignore, 56 years, 5 years and 8 months. Sarino Lauricella, 52 years old, 12 years old.
Domenico Manganello, 48 years, 18 years and 8 months. Giuseppe Morgana, 37 years, 10 years and 8 months. Emanuele Pace, 35 years old, 10 years.
Gioacchino Pace, 42 years, 16 years and 8 months.
Giuseppe Blando, 47 years old, from Favara, brother of Giovanni Brusca’s friend, Domenico, 11 years and 8 months.
Then in the second instance, in Appeal, on 15 June 2023 the deputy general prosecutor, Emanuele Ravaglioli, proposed to the Court the confirmation of the 9 sentences inflicted in the first instance.
Well now the judging section chaired by Vittorio Anania has inflicted a total of almost a century of prison distributed among the nine convicted.
Pace 20 years in Rosario
Gioacchino Barragato 8 years old
Sarino Lauricella 8 years old
Domenico Manganello 12 years and 10 months
Gioacchino Pace 10 years and 6 months
Giuseppe Blando 6 years and 10 months
Francesco Bonsignore 4 years and 8 months
Giuseppe Morgana 8 years old
Emanuele Salvatore Pace 8 years old
The lawyers Giovanni Castronovo, Vito Cangemi, Santo Lucia, Francesco Scopelliti, Antonino Gaziano, Salvatore Pennica, Giuseppe Vinciguerra, Maria Alba Nicotra, Giovanni Rizzuti, Domenico Ingrao and Rosalia Palumbo Piccionello worked in the defense team, among others.
At dawn on January 13, 2021, the Carabinieri of the Agrigento provincial command coordinated by the Palermo anti-mafia prosecutor’s office raged. Over 200 soldiers were involved in the “White Gold” anti-mafia operation. A total of 35 judicial measures were carried out, including 12 precautionary measures in prison, and 23 warnings. The alleged crime is 416 bis, mafia-style criminal association. One of the charges states: “The suspects would have made use of the intimidating power of the association bond, and the conditions of subjugation and silence that derive from it, to commit serious crimes, acquire the management or control of economic activities, concessions, authorisations, contracts and public services and obtain votes by electing representatives during electoral consultations”. And among those under investigation emerged, among others, Rosario Pace from Palma, head of the alleged Stiddaro clan of the same name and cousin of Domenico Pace, 56, among the killers of judge Rosario Livatino, and the municipal councilor of Palma di Montechiaro, Salvatore Montalto. The investigations were started in Palermo where a large drug trafficking operation managed together with the Agrigento mafia families, and in particular the “Country of the Leopard” family, was intercepted. The Carabinieri and magistrates also made use of the statements of Favara’s justice collaborator, Giuseppe Quaranta.
Angelo Ruoppolo (Teleacras)
